The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-04-13
THE TABERNACLE SERMON.
DR.. TALmAGE'S EASTER THEME "THE
OVERTHROW OF THE MONSTER

Up in yictory-The Soul Does Not Wait
for Funeral Obsequies or Obituaries,
but Goes Right to Heaven.
BBooKLYS, April lO-To-day being Easter
Sunday the tabernacle was profusely de-
corated with flowers. The pulpit, the pillars,
and the galleries were one great garden
Of bloom. Professor Browne, the organist.
and Professor Ali, the cornetist, rendered
selections from Handel, Haydn and Bee
thoyeB, appropriate TO the day celebrated
The subject of DIR. Talmage's discourse was
"rhe Overthrow OF the Monster" and his
text, Isaiah XIV. s: "He will swallow up
death in victory" DIR. Talmage said:
About 1853 Faster mornings have awakened
the earth. In France for three centuries the
aimanacs made the year begin at Easter,
until Charles TX made the year begin at
Jan. l. In the tower Of London there is a
royal pay roll Of Edward ], on which there is
entry Of eighteen pence for 400 colored
and pictured Easter eggs, with which the
people Sported. In Russia slaves were fed
and aims were distributed on Easter. Ecclesi-
astical councils met at Pontus, at Gaul, at
Rome, at Achaia. 20 decide the particular day,
and after a controversy, more animated than
gracious decided it, and now through all
ChristendOm. in some way the first Sunday
after the full moon which happens upon or
next after March 81 is filed with Easter
rejoicing.
The royal court Of the Sabbaths is made up
of fifty-two. Fifty-one are princes in the
royal household, but Easter is queen. She
wears richer diadem and sways a more jew
a II
dated. Unusually welcome this year because
OF the harsh winter and the late spring, she
seems to step out Of the snow bank rather
than the conservatory, come out OF the north
instead Of the south out Of the Arctic rather
than the tropics, dismounting from the icy
equinox but welcome this queenly day,
holding high up in her right band the
wrenched of bolt of Christ's sepulcher and
holding high up in her left hand the key to
all the cemeteries in Christendom
IL il an exciting thing TO see an army routed
and flying. They run each other down. They
scatter everything valuable in the track. I'm
wheeled artillery, hoof Of horse on breast
OF wounded and dying man. You have read
of the French failing back from Sedan, or
Napoleon's track Of 200 corpses in the snow
banks Of Russia. or of the retreat Of our own
army from Manassas, or of the five kings
tumbling over the rocks of Bethoran with
their armies, while the hail storms Of heaven
and the swords Of Joshua's host struck them
with their fury. In my text is worse dis
comfiture. IL seems that black giant pro-
posed 10 conquer the earth. He gathered for
his host all the aches and pains and malarias
and cancers aud distempers and epidemics Of
the ages. He marched them down, drilling
them in the northeast wind and amid the slush
of Ia nm of
grave mound. He pitched tent of charnel
house Some of the troops marched with
slow tread commanded by consumptions,
some in double quick, commanded by pneu-
moniae Some he took by long besiegement
of evil habit, and some bv one stroke of the
battleax OF casualty. With bony hand he
pounded at the door of hospitals and sick
rooms, and won all the victories in all the
great battlefelds of all the five continents.
Forward march. the conqueror Of conquerors,
and all the generals and commanders in chief,
and all presidents and kings and sultans and
czars drop under the feet of his war charger.
But one Christmas night his antagonist was
born. As most of the plaques and sicknesses
and despotisms come out of the east, IL was
appropriate that the new conqueror should
come out of the same quarter Power is
given him to awaken all the fallen of all the
centuries and of all lands, and marshal them
against the black giant. Fields have already
been won, but the last day of the worlds ex-
istence will see the decisive battle. When
Christ shall lead forth his two brigades, the
brigade OF the risen dead and the brigade of
the celestial host, the black giant will fall
back. and the brigade from the riven sepul-
chers will take him from beneath and the
brigade of descending immortals will take
him from above, and death shall be swal-
lowed up in victory.
The old brnggart that threatened the con-
quest and demolition of the planet has lost his
throne has lost his scepter, has lost his palace,
has lost his prestige, and the one word writ
ten over all the gates of mausoleum and
catacomb and metropolis, on cenotaph and
sarcophagus, on the lonely khan of the Arctic
explorer, and on the catafalque of great
cathedral, written in capitals of azalea and
Gala lily, written in musical cadence, written
I'm doxology of great assemblages, written or
the sculptured door of the family vault, is
@victory" Coronal word, embannered word
npocalyptic word, chief word Of the trium
phal arch under which conquerors return.
Victory Word shouted at Culloder
and Balaklava and Blenheim, at Ne
giddo and Solferino, at Marathon, where
the Athenians drove back the Medes; al
ranks OF the Saracens; at Salamis, whers
Themistocles in the great sea fight COMPOUNDED
the Peisians, and at the door of the eastern
cavern of chiselled rock, where Christ cam,
out through recess and throttled the kinE
of terrors, and put him back in the niche
from which the celestial conqueror had jus
emerged. Aha when the jaws of the east
ern mausoleum took down the black gian
death was swallowed up in victory" / pro
claim the abolition of death.
The old antagonist is driven back int.
mythology with all the lore about Stygiai
ferry and Charon with oar and boat. Mel
rose Abbey and Kenilworth castle are N,
more in ruins than is the sepulcher. w
shall have no more to do with death than W
have with the cloakroom at governors o
presidents levee We stopat suck cloakroon
and leave in charge of a servant our overcoat
our overshoes, our outward apparel, that W
may not be impeded in the brilliant round O
the drawing room. Well, my friends, whe
we go out of this world we are going to
kings banquet, and to a reception of mon
archs, and at the-door of the tomb we leav
the cloak of flesh and the wrappings wit
which we meet the storms of this world A
the close of an earthly reception, under th
brush and broom of the porter the coat o
hat may be handed to us better than when W
resigned it, and the cloak of humanity wi
finally be returned to us improved and bright
ened and purified and gloriied
You and do not want our bodies returne
rs they are now. We want to get rid of a
their weaknesses and ali their susceptibilitie
10 fatigue and all their slowness of locomc
ton They viii be put through chemistF
of soil and heat and cold and changing season
out Of which God will reconstruct them q
much better than they are now as the bod
of the rosiest and healthiest child that bound
over the lawn at Prospect park is better tina
the sickest patient in Bellevue hospital. Blu
as TO our soul, we will cross right over, no
waiting for obsequies, independent of obi
uary. into a state in every way better, wit
wider room and velocities beyond compute
ton; the dullest of us into companionshil
with the very best spirits in their very hes
mood. in the very parlor of the universe, tn
four walls FURNISHED and panelled and pict
ured and glorified with all the splendors tina
the infinite God in all the ages has beer
able to invent. Victory
This view. of course, makes it Of but littl,
Importance whether we are cremated o.
sepultured IL the latter Is dust to dust tn
former is ashes to ashes. II any prefer in
cineration let them have it without carica
ture. The world may become so crowded
that cremation may be universally adoptet
by law as well as by general consent. Many
of the mightiest and best spirits have gonl
through this process. Thousands and tens O
thousands Of Gods children have been ere
mated-P P. Bliss and wife, the evangelisti'
singers, cremated by accident ut Ashtabuls
bridge, John Rodgers, crematei by persecu
ton; Latimer and Ridley, cremated at OK
ford; Pothinus and Blandina, q slave, anc
Alexander, physician, and their comrades
cremated ut the order Of Marcus Aurelius-
Mt least 900 Of Christis disciples cremated
and there can be no doubt about the resurrec
ticn Of their bodies. IL the world lasts q.
much longer as it has already been bull
there perhaps may be no room for the larg,
acreage set apart for the resting PLACES hu